Ogilvy heads up home nation contingent in JBWere Masters

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Chris Condon/PGA TOUR

Geoff Ogilvy should know every break and bounce this week at Victoria for the JBWere Masters.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Never has a tournament felt so familiar for Geoff Ogilvy as this week's JBWere Masters.

This is like setting up in Ogilvy's backyard, such is his affinity with host club Victoria, one of a cluster of eight private clubs that comprise the city's fabled "sandbelt" in the southeastern suburbs.

It's no exaggeration to suggest the 2006 U.S. Open champion is instinctively aware of every marker bush or subtle break in the scary-quick greens that are the armory of these courses, like across-the-road neighbor Royal Melbourne, preparing to host The Presidents Cup in 12 months.

After all, Ogilvy has been a member at Victoria for nearly 18 years during which, as a teenager, he honed his game representing the club in weekend amateur match-play competition.

And on the regular trips home these days, he loves nothing better than to sign in friends for a leisurely four-ball in which the losers have to buy the beers and steak sandwiches that are consumed on the Geoff Ogilvy Terrace.

Yes, this revered member has his own patch; a balcony, overlooking the 10th tee, that was formally christened at a club dinner to honor his major breakthrough.

There will be a discernible spring in Ogilvy's usually casual gait on the short stroll from the 12th green to the next tee this time. A glance through the foliage reveals Royal Melbourne's 17th green, only 40 yards away, another reminder that places on the 2011 Internationals team are the cherished ambition for every self-respecting Aussie member of the PGA TOUR.

Ogilvy heads the home nation's challenge to defending JBWere Masters champion Tiger Woods in a field that includes Colombian Camilo Villegas and Spaniard Sergio Garcia, playing just his third event in nearly three months in a bid to rekindle the passion as much as precision required to play at the elite level.

Victoria's pin-up boy is refreshed from a short holiday back home before attempting to finish in style after a modest year that started so full of promise with a successful title defense at the SBS Championship in the PGA TOUR's opener at Kapalua way back in early January.

While Ogilvy chose to relax, Aussie colleagues Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby joined Woods at last week's World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai to ensure they brought solid ball-striking back to their hometown.

Allenby and Appleby also grew up playing interclub match play as teammates around Melbourne's tree-lined and heavily bunkered courses, including Victoria. Both know where not to hit their approach shots, the critical strategy at these relatively short, century-old suburban clubs where danger heightens with every stride towards the slick greens.

PGA champ Rich Beem can vouch for the speed of Victoria's greens -- he finished tied for second with Aaron Baddeley and Craig Parry, a shot behind winner Steve Allan in a shambolic 2002 Australian Open when the opening round had to be abandoned mid-afternoon following a player revolt over unplayable putting surfaces.

Allenby is chasing a third Australian Masters crown after letting one slip two years ago with an understandable mental meltdown late in the final round when he spotted his gravely ill mother in a golf cart, following her boy one last time. She passed away a couple of months later.

And Appleby, who finished seven shots behind Woods last year, returns to Victoria's 6,866-yard, par-72 layout with celebrity status enhanced as the fifth player to post 59 in PGA TOUR history.

No one will be more studious with practice round homework than left-hander Greg Chalmers after three runner-up finishes.

Armed with a reliable putting stroke, he fired a closing 7-under 65 at Huntingdale in 2004 to get into a playoff, only to lose out to another local, fellow lefty Richard Green who tuned for this Masters by finishing tied sixth in China.

Englishman Justin Rose denied Chalmers by two shots two years later. And last year he chased Woods home on the last day at Kingston Heath, falling two short again.

Michael Sim and new PGA TOUR graduate Steven Bowditch lead the pack of ambitious young tyros seeking to slip on the gold jacket during Sunday's presentations on the 18th green.

Bowditch, who finished 17th on the Nationwide Tour money list to earn his TOUR card, placed just outside the top 20 last year. He must like his chances again -- and not simply because the 2011 playing schedule is locked away.

Bowditch led the Nationwide Tour in putting average ... and holding your nerve with the delicate touch required for inevitable par-saving 6-footers will be far more important than brute power off the tee to monster the three reachable par 5s.